Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on Swallow them up.-Now, by yond' marble heaven, I here engage my words. IAGO. [Kneels. Do not rise yet. [Kneels. Witness, you ever-burning lights above! 6 Ne'er FEELS retiring ebb,] The folio, where alone this passage is found, reads-Ne'er keeps retiring ebb, &c. Many similar mistakes have happened in that copy, by the compositor's repeating a word twice in the same line. So, in Hamlet: 66 My news shall be the news [r. fruit] to that great feast." Again, ibidem: 66 The spirit, upon whose spirit depend and rest," &c. instead of upon whose weal. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. ―a CAPABLE and wide revenge-] Capable perhaps signifies ample, capacious. So, in As You Like It: "The cicatrice and capable impressure." Again, in Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devil, by Nashe, 1592: "Then belike, quoth I, you make this word, Dæmon, a capable name, of Gods, of men, of devils." It may, however, mean judicious. In Hamlet the word is often used in the sense of intelligent. What Othello says in another place seems to favour this latter interpretation : "Good; good ;-the justice of it pleases me." MALONE. Capable, means, I suppose, capacious, comprehensive. STEEVENS. - by yond' MARBLE heaven,] In Soliman and Perseda, 1599, I find the same expression : "Now by the marble face of the welkin," &c. STEEVENS. So, in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602 : "And pleas'd the marble heavens." MALONE. The EXECUTION] The first quarto reads-excellency. STEEVENS. To wrong'd Othello's service! let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse, What bloody work soever'. By execution Shakspeare meant employment or exercise. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "Full of comparisons and wounding flouts, "Which you on all estates will execute." The quarto 1622 reads-hand. Again, in Troilus and Cressida : MALONE. "In fellest manner execute your arms." STEEVENS. let him command, And to obey shall be in me REMORSE, What bloody WORK SOEVER.] lago devotes himself to wronged Othello, and says, Let him command whatever bloody business, and in me it shall be an act, not of cruelty, but of tenderness to obey him; not of malice to others, but of tenderness for him. If this sense be thought too violent, I see nothing better than to follow Mr. Pope's reading, as it is improved by Mr. Theobald. JOHNSON. The quarto 1622 has not the words-in me. They first appeared in the folio. Theobald reads-Nor to obey, &c. MALONE. Dr. Johnson's interpretation is undoubtedly the true one; and I can only claim the merit of supporting his sense of the word remorse, i. e. pity, by the following instances. In Lord Surrey's translation of the fourth Æneid, Dido says to her sister: 66 'Sister, I crave thou have remorse of me." Again, in King Edward III. 1599, that Prince speaking to the citizens of Calais : "But for yourselves, look you for no remorse." Again, in Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, 1599: "Who taketh no remorse of womankind." Again, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600: "Here stand I, craving no remorse at all." I could add many more instances, but shall content myself to observe that the sentiment of lago bears no small resemblance to that of Arviragus in Cymbeline: "I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood, "And praise myself for charity." STEEVENS. Before I saw Dr. Johnson's edition of Shakspeare, my opinion of this passage was formed, and written, and thus I understood it: "Let him command any bloody business, and to obey him shall be in me an act of pity and compassion for wrong'd Othello." Remorse frequently signifies pity, mercy, compassion, .OTH. I greet thy love, Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance boun teous, And will upon the instant put thee to't: Within these three days let me hear thee say, LAGO. My friend is dead; 'tis done, at your request 2: But let her live. Отн. Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her3! Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw, To furnish me with some swift means of death or a tenderness of heart, unattended with the stings of a guilty conscience. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV. Sc. III. the crimeless Eglamour is called remorseful. So, in King Richard III. Act III. Sc. VII. : "As well we know your tenderness of heart, So, in Holinshed's Conquest of Ireland, p. 13 : to have remorse and compassion upon others distresses ;" and in the Dedication, "to have regard and remorse to your said land." TOLLET. Some of the examples quoted by Mr. Steevens I have omitted, as I think those already inserted are sufficient to prove the meaning of the word. Mr. M. Mason says, he may venture to assert, that Shakspeare seldom, if ever, uses the word in any other sense. REED. If I am not deceived, this passage has been entirely mistaken. I read: "An' to obey shall be in me remorse, "What bloody business ever—.” And for if is sufficiently common and Othello's impatience breaks off the sentence, I think, with additional beauty. FARMER. "What bloody work soever." So the quartos. The folio: 2 "What bloody business ever." STEEVENS. -AT YOUR request:] Thus the folio. The quarto 1622 readss—as you request. MALONE. 3 O, damn her!] Thus the quarto 1622. Folio: O damn her, damn her. MALONE. SCENE IV. The Same. Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Clown. DES. Do you know, sirrah, where lieutenant Cassio lies? CLO. I dare not say, he lies any where. DES. Why, man? CLO. He is a soldier; and for me to say a soldier lies, is stabbing. DES. Go to; Where lodges he? CLO. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie. DES. Can any thing be made of this? CLO. I know not where he lodges; and for me to devise a lodging, and say-he lies here, or he lies there, were to lie in my own throat. DES. Can you enquire him out, and be edified by report ? CLO. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make questions, and by them answer 3. 4 To tell you, &c.] This and the following speech are wanting in the first quarto. STEEVENS. s Clown. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make questions, and By them answer.] This Clown is a fool to some purpose. He was to go seek for one; he says, he will ask for Without doubt we him, and by his own questions make answer. should read-and bid them answer; i. e. the world; those whom he questions. WARBURTON. There is no necessity for changing the text. It is the Clown's play to wrench what is said, from its proper meaning. Sir T. More hath briefly worked his character: "he plaieth the iester, nowe with skoffinge, and nowe with his overthwarte woords, to prouoke all to laughter." His design here was to propose such questions as might elicit the information sought for from him, and therefore, by his questions he might be enabled to answer. HENLEY. and by them answer." i. e. and by them, when answered, DES. Seek him, bid him come hither: tell him, I have moved my lord in his behalf, and hope, all will be well. CLO. To do this, is within the compass of man's wit; and therefore I will attempt the doing it. [Exit. DES. Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia ? EMIL. I know not, madam. DES. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse Full of cruzadoes'. And, but my noble Moor To put him to ill thinking. EMIL. Is he not jealous? DES. Who, he? I think, the sun, where he was born, Drew all such humours from him. EMIL. Look, where he comes. DES. I will not leave him now, till Cassio Be call'd to him ".-How is't with you, my lord? form my own answer to you. The quaintness of the expression is in character. By is found both in the quarto 1622, and the folio. The modern editors, following a quarto of no authority, printed în 1630, read—and make them answer. MALONE. To do this, is WITHIN THE COMPASS OF MAN'S WIT; and therefore, &c.] So, in King Lear : 66 I cannot draw a cart, nor eat wild oats; "If it be man's work, I'll do it." MALONE. 7 — cruzadoes.] A Portuguese coin, in value three shillings sterling. GREY. So called from the cross stamped upon it. JOHNSON. The exact value of a cruzado is here of no importance, nor does it appear precisely what it was in Shakspeare's time. By a mercantile friend I am informed, that there are at present three sorts. The imaginary one of the value of 2s. or 2s. 4d, like the English pound, is only a denomination, and not a coin. The two other sorts are really coins, and all the three differ in value. REED. |